Fall. A season for crisp temps, changing colors, sending projects…and watching climbing movies? Well, as the Reel Rock Film Tour gets set to roll out their 7th worldwide tour of climbing videos it’s getting harder and harder not to think of fall as the best time of year to both go climbing and to watch others climb on video. This year’s tour premiers on Thursday, September 13th in Boulder, CO and three other cities nationwide before embarking on a worldwide tour. To help get you prepared is this brief summary of the four movies that will comprise this year’s tour:

THE DURA DURA

Chris Sharma has been the “king” of sport climbing for 15 years, and has created a mecca for hard routes near his home in Catalunya, Spain. Now, the Czech wunderkind, 19 year old Adam Ondra, has come to Sharma’s home turf to take the torch. Sharma and Ondra battle to establish the world’s first 5.15c, while Sasha DiGiulian and Daila Ojeda shred women’s standards with strong ascents of their own.

Click the picture for a trailer of the Ondra/Sharma portion

THE SHARK’S FIN

Legendary alpinist Conrad Anker nurtured a 20 year obsession with The Shark’s Fin, a spectacular unclimbed granite buttress on the 6,310 meter Mt. Meru, in India. In 2008 Anker, with Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk, endured a grueling 18 day push to withinhundreds of feet of the summit, only to be turned back. Three years later, the trio makes tough decision to return, despite Anker’s deep family ties, and Ozturk’s ski accident just six months before the trip, which resulted in a fractured skull, a broken neck, and serious doubts about going back.

WIDE BOYS

American offwidth climbing has spawned a counter-culture of rough and tumble characters who aren’t afraid to bleed their way up a route. So when two proper British lads, Tom Randall and Pete Whittaker, crossed the pond to eat up the gnarliest wide cracks in thewest — including the first ascent of the world’s hardest offwidth known as Century Crack — it came as quite a shock.

HONNOLD 3.0

Alex Honnold has become known as the boldest soloist of his generation. In this dangerous game, how does he balance pure ambition with self-preservation? From highball boulder first ascents to 5.13 free solos, from far-flung trad climbing adventures, to speed records on The Nose, Honnold wrestles with this question in preparation for his biggest adventure yet – the Yosemite Triple. In under 19 hours he climbs Mt. Watkins, El Cap, and Half Dome, 95% of it free solo.

although that being said, it wouldn’t surprise me if the shark’s fin winds up actually being the most interesting film, it’s just not the one i’m stoked for…. as for the dura dura, i’m sure i’ll enjoy it thouroughly, it’s just hard to get stoked for yet another hard sport vid.

Psyched for Wide Boys and The Shark Fin. I have a a hard time getting excited about sport climbing films despite how impressive the climbing is. Honnold is always amazing to watch but, it’s almost too stressful to enjoy.

I have to say that I’m pretty excited for all of these videos, especially because none of them are about slacklining. It is interesting to observe though that there are no bouldering videos in the lineup. It would be interesting to find out if this is a reflection of the current bouldering scene not being interesting to a viewers or just a consequence of who they happened to hook up with for fliming this year.

I’m pretty sure the lack of bouldering is just who they picked up to do the film (as Honnold, Sharma, Ondra are totally all on fire right now and taking a lot of spotlight) behind that spotlight bouldering is still totally flourishing.